Boulevard Of Broken Hearts
by KuramaKitty
Summary: 17 year-old Hazuki Ogino has finally come back to Japan since she left at 7. She goes to Domino High and has made some new friends! But after meeting her stepfather's boss, she starts having these dreams. What could they mean? SetoXOC One-Shot


Hey! KuramaKitty here! I am very proud of this story, and it even got first place in a one-shot contest that someone on Quizilla had hosted! Along with three other people, but I'm not going to get into that.

This is my first and only one-shot so far that _isn't_ YuYu Hakusho and I'm quite proud of myself!

Well, enjoy the story! Hope you like it!

* * *

_I walk a lonely road  
The only one that I have ever known  
Don't know where it goes  
But it's home to me and I walk alone_

"Hazuki..."

_I walk this empty street  
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams  
Where the city sleeps  
and I'm the only one and I walk alone_

"Hazuki..."

_I walk alone  
I walk alone_

I walk alone  
I walk a...

"Hazuki!"

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
'Til then I walk alone_

"HAZUKI!"

A pair of headphones are suddenly ripped off of a daydreaming girl's head, whipping around and slightly glaring at the culprit. When she sees who it is, her glare falters and she sighs heavily.

"Yes?" Hazuki asks, sitting upright in her car seat.

"We're here!" her stepfather annoyingly sings to her (literally) as she looks out the car window.

A fairly big, white house stands in front of her view, through the almost pitch black night. It was ordinary-looking, you know, the door between the two windows, even with the optional third window directly above the door. She guessed it was a bedroom.

"Sooo?" her stepfather asks with a huge goofy grin. She looks back at him, not being able to help smiling at his goofy expression with his light brown eyes closed and black hair falling messily to his chin.

Her stepfather was actually really nice. She didn't think that her mother could've found a better husband. He just tried way too hard to get Hazuki to like him. She already did anyway. Along with being the nicest guy on the face of the Earth, he was also **rich**. She's not going to lie, personality means a lot to her, not necessarily riches, but the money is definitely a bonus. Of course, they weren't millionaire rich, they just had a lot more money than other familes.

She unbuckles herself, glad to finally just get inside the house to sleep in an actual bed, instead of on uncomfortable airplane or car seats. Those beds in motels where nobody has any idea on what kind of person has been laying on them, not to mention the idea of not knowing when the bedsheets were last washed, weren't exactly any better.

Hazuki found the floor a lot more preferable.

Feeling like she's going to fall asleep where she's at, Hazuki opens the car door and steps outside. The fresh night air was a lot nicer than she'd thought it would be. She stretches her arms above her head to work out the kinks everywhere in her body.

Behind her, her stepfather opens up the trunk of the car and starts lifting out suitcases. Many boxes of Hazuki and her family's stuff is already in the house, sitting there and basically begging to be unpacked into its rightful place, but these suitcases hold clothes and other essentials that was needed on the way to their new house.

Hazuki grabs her own suitcases before her stepfather could, and starts walking inside.

"Hazuki, I can get that for you," he offers.

Hazuki looks over her shoulder with a warm smile and says, "No, I got it. It's okay," before walking inside.

She doesn't feel like admiring the house tonight, so she walks up the stairs and peeks into each room in the hall to find her own. Hers is at the very end of the hall, filled with boxes and boxes and a boxspring bed already set up.

She drops her suitcases down at her feet, kicks her shoes off, and jumps into bed, needing a good night's sleep for the busy day tomorrow.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

"Hello. My name is Hazuki Ogino. I just recently moved back here from America after my mother remarried. I used to live in Japan when I was little, so that explains how I can speak Japanese so fluently. My father, Reiji Ogino, is a scientist, I suppose you could say, and very smart and knowledgeable about all things, although he is very interested in duel monsters. In fact, we would've stayed in America if not for the fact that my father works at Kaiba Corp and was only in America for a vacation slash research project.

"If I start blabbering about something American and you have no idea what I'm talking about, just stare at me blankly and I'll stop talking sooner or later."

The best part about being a new student. Standing up in front of the whole class, introducing yourself, not to mention making a complete fool of yourself as well. Oh well, it's not like Hazuki wasn't going to make a fool of herself sooner or later.

"What's your favorite band?" a random blonde-haired boy asks out of nowhere.

"Too many to count," Hazuki answers with a smirk.

"Name a few," another student says.

Hazuki sighs and runs through the list in her head. "Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Three Doors Down, Nickelback, Evanescence. As long as it isn't rap, hip-hop - which is pretty much the same thing as rap - boy band, or some completely annoying pop star, then I like it."

"What do you like to do?" a very, very short gravity-defying, tri-colored black, yellow, and red-haired boy asks.

"I dunno... Listening to music, playing with my kitties, dueling, I suppose..."

"What's your favorite card?"

"What kind of deck do you have?"

"I challenge you to a duel!"

"...I guess 'I like to duel' are the magic words around here," Hazuki mutters to herself.

"All right class, calm down and stop harrassing the new girl," the teacher, a rather tall, kind-looking young man who looks like he should be A) still in college, or B) in a boy band, says, walking back into the room from wherever he had to be. "Thank you Miss Ogino, I hope they haven't been too rowdy. You can sit down behind Mr. Moto there. Yugi, please raise your hand."

The boy with the tri-colored hair raised his hands. You didn't think _he_ was Yugi Moto. Then again, you hadn't really heard much about him. Something about the King of Games... probably something about Duel Monsters.

Hazuki walks to her seat behind Yugi and sits down while the teacher begins his lecture. She was paying attention... sort of. She rested her chin in the palm of her hand and stared at the teacher and blackboard, then her mind got distracted on one of her many daydreams and ran its own course, forgetting the real world completely. Her glazed eyes still stare at the lesson, but they see a totally different image, one of car brakes screeching, the sound of metal crashing metal, where screams ring out, where fires break out and blood stains the streets...

The bell ringing breaks Hazuki out of her waking nightmare. She looks around in confusion until she remembers where she's at. Then she shakes her head of the echoing scenes in her head, and gets up to walk to her next class.

"Hi!" Hazuki looks up from packing her books away to see Yugi there, along with a boy with blonde hair, a boy with brown hair, a boy with white hair, and a girl with brown hair. The boys seem happy enough, but the girl seems strangely apathetic.

"Hi," Hazuki says warily, confused.

"My name's Yugi, and this is Joey, Tristan, Bakura, and Tea!" Yugi says, pointing to each person as he said their name. "We were wondering if you needed any help finding your next class."

Hazuki smiles sweetly. "That would be very appreciated. Thanks!"

"No problem! What's your next class?" Yugi asks.

"Uhhhmmmm..." Hazuki says to fill the silence while digging through her bag to find her schedule.

"Looks like... Calculus."

"Ick, Bakura, looks like you're taking her," Joey says.

Bakura laughs and explains, "Yes, I suppose I'm the only one here that is in that class." Bakura turns around and looks over his shoulder toward Hazuki. "If you'll follow me."

She nods and follows Bakura to their next class. After another embarrassing introduction to the class, she is issued her Calculus book and sits down to the right of Bakura.

This teacher's lecture isn't very long, so after he gives the assignment, Hazuki and Bakura talk while doing their work for the rest of the period.

After that class is over, Hazuki goes to History who she has with Yugi, Joey, and Tea. Hazuki sits to the left of Yugi while Tea sits on his right and Joey sits behind him.

The only assignment for that day was to write down the meanings of some vocabulary words and other important words that were bolded in their textbook, so once they all got done with that, Hazuki talked with Yugi and Joey.

The next period was not very eventful; her new friends pointed out the edible food at lunch...there wasn't much.

The rest of the day she was hanging out with her new friends as much as possible, and during seventh period, there was a free period.

"Hey Yugi, how about a duel?" Joey asks his spikey-haired friend.

"Sure Joey!" Yugi agrees cheerfully.

"Just don't expect to win," Tristan says jokingly.

"Awww, shut it Tristan!" Joey retorts back.

Hazuki smiles and giggles at their argument. Tea glowers.

Hazuki watches Yugi and Joey duel Yugi kick Joey's butt at duel monsters and giggle every once in a while at Joey complaining.

All of a sudden Yugi delivers the final attack with his Dark Magician, lowering Joey's life points to zero with Yugi still at a high 3150 life points.

"Awwwwww! You always win!" Joey complains.

"Well, what did you expect Joey? He _is_ the King of Games!" Bakura jokes.

"Oh ha ha British Boy," Joey retorts.

The bell suddenly rings to let everyone out for the day. Yugi and Joey gather up their cards and put their desks the way they were.

Hazuki about to leave them alone when Yugi calls back out to her.

"Hey wait Hazuki! Do you want us to walk you home?" he asks.

Hazuki can't help but smile brightly and say, "Sure!" So she waits for them to gather up all their stuff then you walk out of the school together.

Hazuki starts laughing at another scuffle Joey and Tristan are getting into when she hears a car honking. She looks up to see her stepfather's car idling in front of the school.

"Oh, I guess my dad's picking me up. Thanks anyway for the offer Yugi!" Hazuki says, thanking him.

"Oh. No problem Hazuki! See you tomorrow?" he asks.

"Yeah!" she replies walking off. Unfortunately, sometimes she has a talent of finding something to trip over, even on flat, even ground, so she falls straight into her stepdad's car window.

"Owww..." she moans to herself, rubbing her forehead and nose with her hand.

"Hazuki! Are you okay?" multiple people come up to ask her as she opens the car door.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just being a klutz, that's all," she reassures them.

"Okay. See you tomorrow then."

"Yep! See ya!" she says getting into the car and closing the door.

She looks over to her stepfather to see his face turning purple and his shoulders bobbing up and down.

Hazuki sighs exasperatedly and says, "Just let it out. No reason to suffocate yourself over it."

Bubbles of laughter suddenly let loose from Reiji's mouth as his face regains color. "I-I'm sorry, Hazuki. I-I just n-never k-knew you were such a klutz!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Hazuki says, waving his laughter off disinterestingly. In reality though, she was really pretty worried. If she knew herself that well, she knew what brought on that sudden klutz-fest.

_God, I hope it's just a random moment of klutziness..._ Hazuki moans to herself.

"So, I don't mean to just spring this on you, but I offered to let my boss to join us for dinner tonight," Reiji mentions, finally pulling out of his parking spot, a smirk still tugging at his lips. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Mmmm, not really. Seto Kaiba right?"

"Nooo, Frederick Johnson, yes it's Seto Kaiba."

"Oh, make fun of the poor Japan-deprived teenager."

"You're not that deprived."

"Oh no, a girl who hasn't been to Japan since she was seven then returns only a week ago isn't deprived from Japan."

"Yeah, exactly."

Hazuki rolls her eyes then realizes they're back at their house. She decides to take a shower really quick to make a good impression on whoever his boss is and gets dressed in some nice jeans and a black T-shirt with white rhinestones that depict a heart with wings on the chest.

She helps the house get cleaned up - which actually didn't take very long since they just moved in there - and helps her mother a little bit with the cooking.

Finally, the doorbell rings and Reiji goes to answer. Hazuki hears greetings and suddenly starts imagining what his boss looks like.

_A completely bald old guy with a cane and glasses? Gray hair and a face that scares young children?_

Needless to say, when he finally comes around the corner and into view, she receives a shock.

_A completely hot teenager?!_

He has brown hair that falls over his icy cold blue eyes a little bit. His arms were crossed over a pretty well-built chest and a younger teenager around 13 follows behind him.

"Mr. Kaiba, this is my wife Haruhi" - he pauses for Kaiba and Hazuki's mother to shake hands - "and this is my stepdaughter Hazuki." Reiji gestures toward Hazuki and she puts on a smile and holds out her hand. Kaiba takes it and shakes it once before letting it fall.

Reiji motions for everyone to go sit at the table while Hazuki and her mother start to carry in food from the table.

Most of the dinner is spent making small-talk. _Really_ small talk.

Hazuki mostly ignored all of it while daydreaming again, a love-hate habit of hers (sometimes she loves it, sometimes she hates it) when Mokuba - she managed to catch that - asks, "So, why did you move from Japan when you were little Hazuki?"

Hazuki can't help but smile at the cute little guy, he was a teenager but he still had this adorable high-pitched voice like a little kid's. She just wanted to hug him till his head popped off.

"Well, my biological father died in a car accident. My mom had relatives in America, and so we went to live with them," Hazuki answered.

"Oh," he replies, not knowing what else to say.

Just then, the clock in their living room starts ringing, eight times to be exact.

She looks up at the clock and bites her lip.

_I really have a lot of homework I have to do, and I'd rather not stay up half the night doing it... Would it be rude to ask to go start? I'm not sure, but better just not. Better safe than sorry,_ Hazuki thinks to herself.

"Well, I suppose we'd better be going. Thank you for the dinner Mr. Ogino," Kaiba says, standing up.

_Can he read minds or something??_ Hazuki asks with surprise.

Mokuba stands up as well. "Yes, thank you very much. It was really good Mrs. Ogino."

"Thank you Mokuba. It was our pleasure," Hazuki's mother replies, standing up as well as her father and herself.

"Thank you for coming over Mr. Kaiba," Reiji says.

Kaiba only nods his head then looks down at his little brother. "Ready to go, Mokuba?"

"Yep! Right behind you Seto! Thanks again for having us over Mr. and Mrs. Ogino and Hazuki!"

"Anytime," Mr. Ogino says, smiling. "Here, I'll show you out."

Kaiba and Mokuba follow Reiji around the corner and out the front door. Reiji comes back a few minutes later and asks, "So? What did you think of them?"

"I must say that I didn't expect him so young."

"And you Hazuki?" Reiji asks with a mischeivous smile.

"What? What do you expect me to say? 'Oh, he's so dreamy, I love him, oh please let me marry him'?" Hazuki replies sarcastically.

"Mmm, something along those lines, yeah," Reiji says, grinning goofily.

"Oh, ha ha. I have homework I gotta do. See ya."

Hazuki walks upstairs into her room where she proceeds to do her homework. Surprisingly, she didn't find it that hard, and is now getting ready for bed. She changes into very comfortable pajamas and crawls into her bed, where she starts dreaming.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

_In Hazuki's dream, everything is very hazy and blurry. Nothing is clear enough to see. The only thing that is clear enough are voices, very young voices talking._

"Hello! What's your name?" a young, cheerful sounding female voice chirps happily.

Whoever the young girl was talking to speaks up to answer, but when he says the names, they are silenced out for some reason. The same as for when the young girl introduces herself.

"Wanna play with me? I'm bored!" the young girl asks.

"Umm, what should we play?" a young boy asks.

"Hide and seek!" the girl answers.

"Okay. Who'll be it?" an older-sounding, but still very young boy's voice asks.

"I will! Now you two go hide somewhere good, okay?" the girl says cheerfully.

"Okay," the older boy says, then runs off with another boy following. The girl starts counting, and that's when the dream starts to fade out...

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

It's now been a month since Hazuki's dream, her first day of school, and the night when her stepfather's boss and his little brother came over for dinner. She has gotten to be better friends with Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Bakura, but Tea just doesn't seem to want to get along. Maybe it's because of the fact that she has a huge crush on Yugi that she doesn't exactly try to hide - for goodness sakes, she only flirts with him whenever possible! - and she has figured out that Hazuki's sudden klutziness, and constant blushing and stuttering whenever she talks to him is a result of Hazuki's own crush on Yugi. Luckily, only Tea and an observant few have noticed.

Yugi isn't one of them. For being seventeen, he's **extremely** oblivious.

One day after Yugi and the others walk Hazuki home, she walks in only to see Mokuba Kaiba sitting on her living room couch channel-surfing. She stares blankly at the thirteen-year-old cutie until her mother steps into the room and sees her.

"Oh, hello Hazuki! Reiji had told me that Kaiba was busy this evening and that he needed for someone to watch over Mokuba. So I volunteered!" Haruhi explains cheerfully.

"Oh, okay," Hazuki says in reply.

"Hi Hazuki!" Mokuba greets cheerfully.

"Hey Mokuba!" Hazuki greets back just as cheerfully while kicking off her shoes at the door. She walks into the living room while Mokuba sits and walks behind the couch and ruffles up his hair a bit.

"I'll be right back down, okay?" Hazuki says running upstairs. She changes out of that horrid school uniform and into more comfortable clothes and gathering up anything she'll need to do homework. She carries her bookbag downstairs and sits on the floor in front of the couch where Mokuba is sitting. She spreads her books and assignments in front of her, trying to decide what to do first. Wanting to get the hardest part out of the way first, she picks up her math book and sets it in her lap.

"High school really gives out this much homework?!" Mokuba asks in astonishment. Hazuki has her calculus, chemistry, english, and history book out on the floor and she has homework for each one.

Hazuki laughs and says, "Yep. But, depending on how smart you are, a lot of this is really easy. It's just a lot to do."

"I'm only in junior high. I don't think I'm so excited to go to high school anymore."

"Well, there's a lot of stuff in high school that you can't do in junior high. Like there's a lot of free periods to work on homework or do whatever you want. Or are there free periods in junior high?"

"Just Study Hall but that's no fun 'cause you can't talk."

"See? I mostly either get a headstart on my homework or watch Joey try to beat Yugi in duel monsters."

"Do you like duel monsters, Hazuki?" Mokuba asks excitedly.

"Not as much as a lot of other kids do. I have a deck, but I haven't played in so long; I wouldn't win my next one."

"Can I duel you sometime?" Mokuba asks.

Hazuki laughs and says, "Sure! It just depends on how busy I am and if I feel like losing or not."

The next few hours are spent chatting while Hazuki does her homework. Mokuba had offered to help and Hazuki handed him her chemistry book. He read a few sentences then handed it back with a, "Um, I think I'd just help you fail," and a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head.

Hazuki and Mokuba hear the door open and watch Hazuki's father followed by Kaiba walk in the door.

"Hi Seto!" Mokuba cheers happily, jumping up and running over to Kaiba.

"Ready to go?" he asks.

"Yep! Bye Hazuki!" Mokuba says waving.

"Bye Mokuba! See ya later!" Hazuki replies waving back.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

Another month has passed and Mokuba has been over often. Hazuki had given Mokuba his duel, and he won, much to Hazuki's sarcastic surprise. They duel every once in a while and Hazuki can tell that she's getting better again, but Mokuba has been practicing his entire life and she has no hope that she'll beat him.

She's also had a lot more dreams, each one on the night when Mokuba had been over. They've gotten a lot clearer as to the landscape, but she still can't hear names or see faces. She has no clue as to what it could mean.

Now, it's Christmas Break and Hazuki had agreed to take Mokuba to a carnival since his brother was too busy to take him. She dresses up in a blue and black kimono that used to be her mother's and puts a matching clip in her black hair. She slips on some sandals and waits until for her mother to take her to the carnival.

Haruhi drives to the Kaiba's mansion where Mokuba is already waiting outside all dressed up as well. He grins adorably and gets in the backseat of the car.

"Hi! Thanks again for taking me Hazuki!" Mokuba says.

"No problem Mokuba! Did you have any luck at getting Seto to join us later?" Hazuki asks.

"Actually yes! He caved in after about four straight hours of bugging him about it and he said he'd join us around four o'clock!"

"Well, that's good! That means that you only have to endure two hours with Hazuki alone," Haruhi says jokingly.

"Aww, Mokuba likes me! Don't you Mokuba?"

"Of course I do!" Mokuba agrees.

"Oh, Mokuba, you can say what you really want," Haruhi says, smirking.

"You know, for that, you can give me ten extra bucks 'cause you're being mean," Hazuki tells her mother, folding her arms over her chest and sticking her tongue out at Haruhi.

"Oh, okay, I'll stop."

"And give me ten extra dollars?" Hazuki asks hopefully.

"No, I've already given you fifty, and you'll come back with about **zero** change."

"Fine."

"Here we are. Get out of my car."

"Fine."

Mokuba's just in the backseat laughing at the two's argument; he's watched them argue too much before to know that they don't really mean it.

"All right, I'll be back around seven-thirty to pick you up Hazuki," Hazuki's mom says.

"Well, if my brother's coming, he might be able to drive Hazuki back home," Mokuba offers.

"All right, well, you have your cell phone. If you need a ride home, call me, kay?"

"Got it mom, see ya," Hazuki says closing the car door. They watch her drive off before Hazuki turns to Mokuba and asks, "So, what do you want to do first?"

"I dunno. Can we just walk around for right now until we find something to do?"

"Sure! Let's go!"

For the next two hours, Hazuki and Mokuba just walk around the carnival grounds, playing different games. They haven't eaten anything yet; they're waiting for Seto. Hazuki is in the middle of telling a joke when Mokuba's phone rings. He takes it out of his pocket and looks at the caller I.D. He smiles when he sees who it is and answers it with a, "Hi Seto!" Mokuba listens to what Seto's saying and says, "We're by the rides...No, we can meet you by the entrance...Yep!...Okay, we'll be right there!" Mokuba finishes and hangs up his phone. "Seto's by the entrance and I told him we would meet him there."

"Okay, well then what are we waiting for?" Hazuki says grabbing Mokuba's hand and walking off toward the entrance of the carnival.

When they arrive there, they see Seto looking none too happy leaning against a pole holding up a sign that says 'Domino City Carnival' in big, bright, happy colors.

Mokuba runs up to him, stands in front of him, and gives his brother a big, huge, adorable grin. Seto sighs and follows after Mokuba back to Hazuki.

Seto silently follows Mokuba and Hazuki around for the next few hours, probably just wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. Mokuba stops by a basketball game where the more baskets you make, the bigger the prize.

Mokuba paid for a few basketballs and actually made all three. He was given a really small bear and paid for three more. He made those three and got a regular-sized bear. He made two more but missed the last one. The person manning the booth though was really nice and gave him another free try. Mokuba made that one and got a huge white teddy bear; it's height coming up to Hazuki's waist. Mokuba stops there and turns to Hazuki holding out the bear, "Here you go Hazuki! You can have it!"

Hazuki smiles and says, "No Mokuba, you won it, you keep it."

"I won it for you though!" Mokuba says grinning.

Hazuki smiles warmly at Mokuba and takes the bear from his hands. She kisses him on the cheek and says, "Thank you very much Mokuba. You're very sweet!"

Mokuba blushes and grins wider.

They go to eat and Seto pays for everyone's dinner before he decides that he should get Mokuba home.

"Can Hazuki have a ride Seto?" Mokuba asks.

"I guess," Seto replies.

"Thanks Seto!" Hazuki says. Seto doesn't reply, only walks to his car - he didn't want to attract attention by bringing a limo - and gets in the driver's seat. Mokuba gets in the front seat, and Hazuki climbs into the back, stuffing her new adorable white teddy bear next to her.

Seto drives off out of the carnival parking lot and it doesn't take long for him to get to her house.

"Thanks again for the ride home Seto," Hazuki says, getting out and grabbing her bear.

Seto once again doesn't say anything; Mokuba answers for him. "You're welcome Hazuki! See ya later!"

"See ya later Mokuba!" Hazuki replies and shuts the door, watching Seto drive off. She clutches her bear and walks up her walkway inside, then up the stairs to her room, where she changes into some pajamas and proceeds to have another dream.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

_Hazuki can see three small, blurry figures walking down a pathway; the sides marked with wooden booths of some kind._

The girl stops at one and sees a huge white bear hanging up in one of them. She stares in astonishment at it before pointing at it and saying, "That's really big! Bigger than me!"

The older of the two young boys sees what she's pointing at and goes up to the booth at which he's only barely taller of to set down some money. The person manning the booth gives the boy a basketball and he shoots it. To his amazement, he makes it. However, he doesn't make the next two. He puts down more money and continues to do so until he makes six baskets. The boy puts down more money to try to win the bigger one when the girl stops him.

"Don't spend all your money here! Try some other games!" she scolds.

"But I wanted to win you the big bear..." the boy complains.

"The bear is taller than me! Do you really think I'll be able to carry it around with me all day?" she asks like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. The boy smiles and hands out the regular-sized bear he won.

"All right then, take this one!"

"Aww! Thank you..." Once again, Hazuki can't hear the name nor see the faces. The little girl's voice fades out as Hazuki wakes up.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

The next day, she decides to drive around town to try to think about the dreams she's having. She drives aimlessly, only barely paying attention to the road. She comes across a highway and continues driving. She stops and parks the car by a cliff; probably a popular make-out spot.

She leans against her seat and closes her eyes, wondering exactly what these dreams are. What's really driving her crazy is the fact that she knows what they mean, and yet her mind just won't register what her entire being is trying to tell her.

Eventually, she gets really frustrated and gets out of her car. She walks around and finds that the cliff overlooks the ocean. It's not a very far drop down, but Hazuki stays away from the edge.

For some reason, Hazuki has always been afraid of the water. Well, drowning, actually. She'll go in the water where she can touch the bottom, but not farther than that. She generally shies away from the ocean because of rip tides and currents that could carry her away into deep water where she can't swim at.

She opens her passenger car door and sits down on the seat, closing her eyes and enjoying hearing the waves crash against the cliff. Although she doesn't like water, it calms her down greatly if she isn't too close.

The sun starts to come out from behind the clouds it was at earlier, and she lays down on the ground, also enjoying the sun's rays caressing and warming her skin. She's so relaxed that she doesn't realize the two shadows coming up behind her.

"Hey, you got any money for us?" Hazuki's eyes shoot open and she jumps up from her place on the ground and spins around. She sees two men, only a few years older than her, looking drunk and knives in hand.

Fear wells up inside her as she remembers their question. "I-in my car."

She inches slowly toward the passenger car door, unfortunately the door closest to where she's at.

"Stop!" one says, raising his knife and hiccupping. Hazuki instinctively takes a step back. They stagger forward. Hazuki, taking a closer look at them, notices that they're barely on their feet. They're so drunk, they're due to pass out any minute. Hazuki keeps stepping back, keeping as much distance between her and them as possible. It's only when she comes right to the edge of the cliff when she starts to panic.

Then they fall to the ground and pass out.

Hazuki relaxes and shifts her weight, moving her foot slightly.

In the wrong way.

Her foot catches the very edge of the cliff and she loses her balance. She falls backward and down toward the water.

She braces herself for the impact of the water and sinks underwater. She's able to kick herself above the surface, but she doesn't know how to stay there. She splashes and flails about, trying to keep above water. The current pulls her under every now and again, before letting go of her and letting her breathe again. Finally, the current pulls her under and keeps her there. She desperately tries to get to the surface, but can't. Eventually, her reflexes force her to take a breath, breathing in a lung-full of water. Her chest hurts so bad and the lack of air causes her to black out. She doesn't know if she imagined it or not, but she thought she heard someone else diving into the water.

She wakes up to a sporadic coughing fit. She feels the water sliding up her throat and out her mouth in torrents. Just when she thought she coughed up all the water, more comes spilling out.

For a while, all she can hear is her own coughing. Then she hears someone pounding on her back, then she feels someone pounding on her back, helping the water out of her lungs. Then she hears her name being called frantically by a young voice.

Finally, her breathing evens out as the rest of the water flows out and she regains oxygen in her lungs.

"Hazuki! Hazuki! Can you hear me?" she hears. Then she thinks she recognizes the voice.

"Mokuba?" she calls out, confirming.

"Hazuki! Hazuki, are you okay?" he asks worriedly. Her vision starts clearing up as well and she sees Mokuba's tear-stained face contorted in fear.

She can't help but smile reassuringly, even in this situation. "Yes Mokuba, I'm okay," she says, lifting herself up on her hands.

Mokuba launches himself toward Hazuki and hugs her tightly, more tears falling down her face.

"Oh Hazuki. I was so scared! I saw you fall, then you went underneath and didn't come back up..." he fades out and starts sobbing and hiccupping. Hazuki wraps her arms around Mokuba as tight as she can while getting up on her knees.

"I'm all right Mokuba. It's okay," she reassures him, over and over again, trying to calm him down.

It was then that she realized that he wasn't wet. At first, she thought Mokuba has saved her. Then she realized that Mokuba probably wasn't strong enough to drag her to shore either. She catches movement in the corner of her eye, and turns her head to see Seto, soaking wet from head to toe.

_Seto must've been the one who saved me,_ she deduces.

Mokuba breaks away, still hiccupping, some tears still escaping his eyes. He starts to wipe the tears away with the back of his rolled-up fist and Hazuki smiles and helps him.

"It's all right Mokuba, I'm okay. I'm right here, I'm alive, thanks to Seto."

"Mm-hmm," Mokuba agrees through his hiccups, nodding his head.

"Come on, we're all wet now and it's starting to get chilly. I don't want you to catch a cold," she mentions to Mokuba. "You either Seto," she says, turning to Mokuba's older brother.

She slowly rises to her feet, bringing Mokuba up with her. Unfortunately, she finds her legs weakened by the encounter and almost falls over. Seto catches her and Mokuba before they hit the ground. He rightens them up and makes sure they won't fall over again before letting go of them.

"Come on," he says, walking off toward a car in the distance and Hazuki and Mokuba follow.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

The next day, after a very warm shower and lots of orange juice and soup to help prevent getting sick from the night before, Hazuki shoots up in bed.

"Oh wow," she whispers to herself, staring sadly at her hands folded in her lap.

She springs up out of bed and gathers some clothes to take with her to the bathroom to change into after taking a quick shower. That only took twenty minutes.

She runs down the stairs and was about the run out the door before she realizes exactly how early it is. Only six. Hazuki isn't sure when Seto goes to work, but she figures she should wait a few hours.

And they were the longest hours of her life.

Finally, around nine o'clock, she leaves a note for her parents before running to Kaiba Corp. Her car is still at the cliff and she'd have to ask her stepfather for a ride to go get it later.

She runs the whole way and leans over and puts her hands on her knees to catch her breath. When her breathing regulates, she walks as calmly as she can into the building.

She goes up to the front desk, and asks where Kaiba is. The receptionist says that he's in his office, but she's not sure if she could go in there and see him. Hazuki smiles and says that she's a friend of his and she's looking for Mokuba. The receptionist is about to argue when one of Kaiba's security guards vouches for her, remembering her from a few times when Mokuba dragged her over to their mansion. He even escorted her to Seto's office. Good thing too, she would've never found it otherwise. It's fifty freaking stories for crying out loud!

The security guard leaves her alone, and she gathers up the courage to knock on the door.

"What?" a rather cold voice barks out from behind the door.

She opens up the door just enough to peek her head in. "Can I come in?"

"Hazuki? What do you want?" he asks coldly. Hazuki flinches. He had never talked to her so coldly before.

Hazuki walks fully in and closes the door behind her, then turns to face Seto. She leans against the door while staring down at her feet, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

"Hazuki, spit it out. I'm very busy."

"I-I'm s-sorry Seto," she whispers just loud enough for him to hear. "All those years ago, before I left, I'm sorry."

"What, after two months you finally say something about it?"

"I-I can explain," she speaks up, voice breaking, tears falling, but Seto interrupts her.

"Hazuki, the only reason I was somewhat civil to you was because of the reason that either your family or Mokuba was around. I don't understand why Mokuba let you back into his life so easily, but it's not going to be that way with me."

"S-seto! Pl-please listen!" Hazuki pleads, her tears falling to the carpet like a neverending rain.

"No! You listen!" Seto yells, standing up from his seat. "One day you promise to never leave, then the next day, week, _month_, **year** we never hear from you again! Until two months ago when your mother married Reiji and we saw each again at your house! Then you stare at us and converse with us like we had never met before! I was hurt, hurt more than you can imagine, when you just up and left without even a good-bye. I'm not going to deal with that again! I'm not going to associate with you ever again, if I had my way, I wouldn't speak or even look at you again!" Seto finishes screaming out everything he felt ever since he had seen her again. He knows he was cold, he knows he was cruel, horrible, and every other word to that extent in the biggest dictionary in the world, but he felt like she deserved it after what she put him through.

He watches the tears flow down her face, he watches her arms wrap around her stomach, he watches her entire body convulse with the sobs she's holding in, with the hurt and rejection he just put her through.

"I'm sorry Seto," she whispers one last time before she opens the door and runs out, away from his harsh words.

Despite what he should feel, shame, hurt, anger at himself for ever letting those words leave his mouth, he feels a lot better. He had been carrying that on his shoulders for the longest time, ever since that dinner at the Ogino's. It hadn't helped his already overloaded stress level.

He sinks back down in his chair and lets his pulse slow down to a normal level. He was angry. Really angry. Hazuki had been his best friend, he had been hers, and yet she couldn't even spare a simple good-bye before she left the country.

He couldn't think on the subject any longer; he had to get his work done. He turns his attention back to his laptop and starts typing away.

It was a few hours later when he decided he should watch a simulation of a rematch between him and Yugi Moto, to determine whether Reiji, Hazuki's stepfather and head of that department, had made any more advancement in finding a weakness in Yugi's God Cards. He saves his work, closes his laptop, and stalks off toward his simulation booth.

He walks in the room and everyone snaps their heads up to look at their boss. Everyone except one...

"Where's Reiji Ogino?" he barks. Reiji still had at least another hour before his day was done.

"He had gotten a call about an hour ago. Something about his daughter getting hurt. He didn't have time to the receptionist downstairs, but I went down there personally to ask her to pass along the message to you. She didn't tell you?" the second-in-command, Sahara Ukita, says.

"No, she hasn't," Seto growls through his teeth. Another reason to fire her. She had been incompetent from day one.

Without another word, Seto walks off, back to his office. He is cursing the world and everybody in it when someone runs into him. He looks behind him to yell at him to watch where he's going when he notices it's his little brother.

He evens out his voice enough to ask, "What's the rush?"

Mokuba, realizing he ran into his brother, replies, "It's Hazuki! Her mother just called me with the news! She got hit by a car and is in the hospital right now!"

His brother's words hit him like, well, a moving truck. Hazuki? Hurt? In the hospital? A wave of concern and fear for her washes over him. But he can't figure out why. Hasn't it not even been six hours when he yelled at her with such hate?

Mokuba jumps up from his spot on the ground and rushes off.

"Wait! Mokuba!" Seto calls without him really realizing it.

Mokuba stops and looks back at his brother with concern-filled eyes. For Hazuki. Seto hadn't ever planned on asking him, but since he's stopped, he figured he might as well.

"When Hazuki suddenly appeared and showed up in our lives again, why did you accept her back again so easily? She must've hurt you as much as me when you saw that she didn't remember us," he asks, sincerely not knowing the answer.

Mokuba's expression saddens and he stares down at the floor. "Yes, I was. A lot. But then I asked her mother more about it that first day she watched over me while you were busy. The car accident that took her father's life? Hazuki was in the car too. The accident was really bad, I even researched it a bit after I found out. Hazuki had lost her memory, everything from the day of the accident back besides her mother and father. So I knew it wasn't her fault at all. That's why I won her that white bear at the carnival the other day. I remember you winning one exactly like it for her and thought that it might jump-start her memory of us again."

Seto could only stare on in shock. It really wasn't her fault that she didn't remember him and Mokuba. The car accident erased her memories of them all together as friends. It must be the same reason why she didn't say good-bye. She didn't remember them, or else she would've. He knows she would've. But then, her apology, did she get her memory back? He remembered yesterday, and he remembered a time where he had dragged her out from a nearby lake she had fallen into when they were little. She wouldn't go near deep water since then. Maybe that was the key that unlocked her memories?

"I'm sorry Seto, I want to get to the hospital to see Hazuki," Mokuba says, starting to run off again.

"Wait." Mokuba stops again and stares back at his brother. "I'm coming with you." Mokuba nods and Seto runs off after his little brother to their car and speed off toward the hospital.

-/-\-/-\-/-\-

Days, weeks, two months pass.

Hazuki had fallen into a coma from being hit by that car. The damage had been really bad. Both her legs broken, five ribs, her right arm, and she had landed on her head as gravity brought her back down to earth when the car threw her into the air.

And each hour, minute, second, Seto felt worse than the last. He knew it was her fault that she got hit by that car. If he hadn't yelled at her so ruthlessly, she wouldn't have run off. She was probably so blinded by her tears and pain that she stepped into the street and didn't see the car coming.

This was worse than when he was carrying his anger and hate on his shoulders when Hazuki came back into his life. Way worse.

He became way behind on his work, sometimes not doing anything for days at a time. Only wallowing in his own anger and hate at himself for not letting Hazuki explain. He had no doubt she was going to explain the exact situation Mokuba had explained that same day.

Reiji hasn't been completely into his work either. He always stares blankly into space with a sad expression and his co-workers always have to snap him out of it.

She stays with Hazuki at the hospital every night. Lately, he'd be lucky if he even got two hours of sleep.

He hasn't cried yet. Honestly, he thought he would've by now. With knowing why Hazuki was in the hospital, the complete revulsion he felt toward himself, and the pain his heart was constantly in, he thought he would've caved in.

Mokuba hadn't been the same way. Seto can hear him crying almost weekly, and his expression when he asks if Hazuki has woken up yet is absolutely heart-breaking.

Yugi and his band of friends even go to visit her once a week; Seto found out that they had actually been pretty good friends. He had been irritated when he had overheard someone teasing Yugi about the obvious crush she had on him. He doesn't quite know why, but that's the least of his worries at the moment.

Seto wakes up again from his restless night of sleeping; if you could call it that. He catches sight of the clock on the wall. Almost five o'clock. He sits up on the extra bed in Hazuki's room and runs his fingers through his hair. He looks hopefully at the peaceful Hazuki sleeping in the bed next to him. No change. He sighs sadly and gets up, deciding to go home and get ready for work.

He grabs his coat from where it's sitting on the chair and walks out the door. He walks down the hall and is about to walk outside to his car when he realizes his car keys aren't in his pocket. Sighing heavily at the thought of having to see Hazuki's immobile body more than once in the time span of a few minutes, he turns around and walks back to her room. He walks in, trying to avoid looking at Hazuki as he reaches for his keys on the bedside table. Keys in hand, he turns around to walk back out the door.

Then he hears it. A deep breath. The sound of someone shifting around. He can feel his breath escape him. He turns around.

There, he can see Hazuki's eyes flutter open. They look around the room in confusion. Then they land on him.

"Hazuki?" he calls out her name, confirming whether or not she's really awake or if he's dreaming.

"Seto?" a voice calls out, the word being carried out of her mouth on the current of a breath, barely loud enough through the oxygen mask on her nose and mouth. She seems to realize exactly how quiet she is, and reaches up with a weak hand to pull it down around her neck.

He rushes over to her side and takes her hand.

"Hazuki? Can you hear me?" he asks, his eyes finally tearing up.

"Seto?" she breathe out again. She feels something wet her arm. She stares through blurry eyes at Seto's face. Tears? "Seto, are you crying?" she asks.

He closes his eyes to stop the flow.

"Hazuki, I'm so sorry. I really am, I wish I could take those words back. I'm sorry to say I meant them at the time, but not now. If I hadn't yelled at you then, then you wouldn't be here."

"Seto, what are you apologizing for?" she asks, honestly confused, and still not really awake.

Seto's eyes shoot open. Realizing what may have happened, he asks, "Hazuki, what's the last thing you remember?"

Hazuki thinks hard for a few seconds before answering. "I remember running out of a building, crying. I don't know why though," she replies, getting a bit more awake now.

"You were crying because I yelled at you and said things that I really regret now. If I hadn't, you would've never ran in the path of that car."

"Seto, don't apologize. I doubt that it's your fault. I probably just wasn't watching where I was going." Hazuki suddenly feels herself getting weaker, more tired. She's using all her energy just to talk to him.

"You weren't watching where you were going because of the tears filling your eyes that I caused," he points out.

"Maybe, maybe not. I still don't blame you though," she says, her voice getting weaker and weaker now, her eyelids getting heavier.

Seto notices and runs his fingers through her hair. "Hazuki, you can only go back to sleep if you promise you'll wake up again."

Hazuki smiles as best she can and says, "I promise Seto."

He rubs her hand against his face and then kisses it. It is then he realized how much more Hazuki is so much more than a friend to him now. Even now, many plans run through his head to make it up to her; his cruel words he had spoken two months ago, and to make her happy.

"Sweet dreams Zuki," he mumbles into her hand and she drifts back off into sweet, sweet sleep again.

Seto, so much lifted off his shoulders again, sets Hazuki's hand back on the bed. He keeps his hand on top of hers as he lays his head on his hand and closes his eyes, each of them slipping into the same dream of when they promised each other they would be friends forever.

* * *

Well? Hope you liked it! I would really appreciate some feedback! I still have sort of a hard time depicting emotionless guys like Seto in love, and this was written way after Cheaters. So please don't nail me too hard for that if you don't think it's quite right.

Tried my best! Cya!


End file.
